


Perhaps you think me stooping

by middlemarch



Category: Mercy Street (TV)
Genre: American Civil War, F/M, Questions, Romance, song of solomon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-08-07 07:35:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7706029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/middlemarch/pseuds/middlemarch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jedediah has a question to answer that is very unexpected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Perhaps you think me stooping

“How could you ask me that?” Jed asked, bemused. Could she really wonder? Did she?

So many questions he would have accepted as reasonable, even urgent given recent events, but what she had said startled him. Mary rested in the circle of his arms, her cheeks rosy and her lips red from his kisses. Her hair was still in its snood, but several chestnut curls had escaped and he’d brushed them back from her forehead, marveling at the softness of her skin and how she’d drawn closer to him with the slightest touch. He was not an ascetic and had always valued the loveliness of women, but he’d never experienced the joy she brought him, how perfectly her dark eyes complemented her intelligence, her fair face her charming sincerity, her slender, eager form her passion and lively virtue. He didn’t understand why she was so taken with him, his myriad flaws which seemed far beyond the ordinary, but he had learned, at least he had learned not to question good fortune when it arrived. He leaned back along her reclining body, rubbing his cheek against hers and listened for her murmur of pleasure. Then he kissed her neck, just beneath her ear; she moved as he thought she would, so it was easy to speak directly, tenderly, and not merely whisper.

“Yes, I love you, my Mary, I love you so dearly. I thought actions spoke louder than words and that I had already said enough, but if I haven’t, well, then, you are right to ask. I’m happy to answer you… it’s the greatest pleasure to tell you.”

She had shifted and traced her hand along his neck and jaw and now she caressed the curve of his head through his dark curls; she pressed to pull him closer again and she was so warm, so distracting, he did not feel the ring on her finger. The gold held the heat of her skin and his, was made intangible by their embrace. The words he’d had engraved were a second ring, binding her to him, “For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.” But it seemed she might need to hear him say it again and again, to be told many more times just how much he loved her before she asked the question only to tease him.

**Author's Note:**

> This is an actual drabble response to a prompt from ultrahotpink "How could you ask me that?" I went as romantic as I could, even Biblically. The title is an Emily Dickinson special and I think Jed imagines Mary will have more questions about the end of his first marriage and what that means for them...


End file.
